Thread: door to door advertising ?anybody tried this?

I still have had remarkable success with the MLS listing. Find a Realtor that has access to the Multi Listing Service (MLS) list of houses for sale. they can run a list of houses that just closed (just sold). Get that list once a month (once a week for me) and either go by and introduce yourself to the NEW homeowner and let them know you take care of such and such yards in the neighborhood to help keep the neighborhood market up. Or you can send a letter or postcard to these newly bought homes and let them know about a new homeowner deal you have for that specific neighborhood. I used this when I was selling residential security systems and tripled my commisions and now I use it for lawn and have doubled the size of our customer base in 8 months. The only "catch" is finding a realtor willing to help you out. I just called around and asked and the one I work with was about my 4th phone call. I offer them a small kick back ($5 for each one I sell off that list which is around 800 this year) and they are more than happy to give it to me because that is $4000 more than they would have had and it takes them about 5 minutes to produce a list. Try it out... it works!

So the whole trick is finding newly purchased homes?

Shouldn't be a problem for me. My father in law is a licensed realtor.

The only time we knock on the door is if a neighbor or customer says x is interested. Other than that we buy 20000 or more business cards and run a special on the back. Kind of like a loss leader but really no loss, just a bit less profit. Usually run free aeration with signed yearly contract. figure the 50 bucks I would make off an aeration is far less than what it takes in phone book adds and what not. We average a 15-20 percent response and land 5% yearly accounts and another 8% on onetime jobs. Thing is we only do this in the spring but get calls throughout the year.

As long as you prepared to have the door slammed on you a few times it works. Make sure you have a good opening line but do not come across as a salesman. Something like "hey we are working on one of your neighbors lawns and thought I would drop some information". Low pressure, soft sale. Give them information and facts about their lawn or specials you are running. Do not say I will beat any price unless you want a quit exit out of the industry. Like the guys said above, sale value, not price.

What we tried one year was to make all our flyers with the same info on it, like MOW, TRIM, Blow off and EDGE sidewalks and drive. Then each color flyer had a different price on it. That way when you go into the high end residential areas you can look at the lawn and pick your price then give them the colored flyer with that price on it. This gives the customer an idea of what your offering and how much and they can compare it to the other company they currently use. Or they might just say to themselves "man thats not a bad price I should give em a call". OR just throw it away, but anyway you get my drift. The red flyers would have $30, the blue flyers would have $40, the green would have $50 and so on. Keep them in your truck and if you pass a lawn you wouldnt mind bidding on then throw them a flyer. NO knocking or bothering the customer this way they can see for themself on there own time. Hope this helps I know it did for us.

I do this same thing - not color coded, but the same idea - pick your lawns

Shouldn't be a problem for me. My father in law is a licensed realtor.

Ya newly homes are always a gold mine for me. New couples that buy a house usually have 2-3 toddles and are very busy with them and work, so they don't have much time on their yard. Most older folks and plenty more time to do stuff around their house.

I do a couple condo associations that run parallel to a golf course. The back yards connect to the golf course, with the far unit close to one of the tees. I put a couple low profile signs in along the border, that are out of view to the home owner. The nice thing about it, is it is in an area were people constantly slice it. Have had a fair share share of calls, from interested parties. I have also had a few near misses from golf balls while mowing. Golfers seem to appreciate a well manicured turf, therefore that is the type of home owner I try to relate with, not to mention many golfers are retired, and have the means to hire out. Putting signs in your prized lawns, whether residential or commercial will catch someones eye.

I threw plastic baggies with my biz card and two pieces of hard candy (Brand name such as Brachs in wrappers!) by front doors during down time. I mow as a side line and found about 1/3 of customers with this method.